Love Is A Maze
by Little.D.526
Summary: Alex loves Mason, there is no doubt in her mind about that. But after meeting Chase, she can't seem to figure out what her heart wants her to do. Will she choose Mason, the love of her life? Or Chase, the new guy who makes her feel so special?
1. The Dream

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Wizards Of Waverly Place**

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><p>Mason held my hand as we walked through the park. The moon was out and the sky was clear, the stars lit up the sky like fireflies in the middle of summertime. Crickets chirped a symphony with the owls and occasional car that drove by. We stopped at a wooden bench and sat down. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. I loved the feeling of being in his arms, I felt so safe.<p>

"Happy one-year anniversary, Alex." He whispered into my ear, his beautiful accent making butterflies stir in my stomach. God I loved him so much. I smiled and turned to face him, kissing him.

"Happy one-year anniversary. . . I love you, Mason." I whispered back, blushing. Even though we have already told each other we love each other, I still felt scared saying it. Like someday I'll say it, and he'll tell me he doesn't love me anymore. It was a crazy thought, because I know it will never happen, but with him, I couldn't risk losing him. He was too important to me.

"I love you too." He smiled, leaning in to kiss me. His lips were soft and warm and gentle. When we broke apart, he seemed hesitant. "Did you really love the statue?"

"Of course! It's the most beautiful gift anyone has ever given to me- and to think you _made _it, too! You're amazing, Mason. I don't know what I'd do without you." I replied. He hugged me, whispering thank you into my hair. I pulled back, looking at him.

"What?" he asked, suddenly self-conscious. "Do I smell like dog? I swear I tried to get rid of it, Alex." I just laughed.

"No, no. I just. . ." I stopped, blushing. Mason waited for me to finish, knowing I would after I took a breath.

"I can't believe I got so lucky to have such an amazing boyfriend. Before you, all I really liked in my relationships was the rush. But you know how to make me feel grown up and . . . not devious all the time. With you, I'm happiest." I gushed. Mason softly chuckled. I gave him a questioning look.

"Alex? Not devious?" he asked. I must have looked offended, because he bit his lip. He only does that when he thinks he's made a mistake. I was a little upset because I had just gushed to him how I felt, but I understood. Besides, he looked guilty. I can't stay mad at him when he looks so innocent, like he really didn't know he said it. Sometimes he just says things without thinking. I think it's because he's so happy with me. I know he gets very jealous sometimes, like with Dean, Or Chase. I tensed. Chase. I pulled back from Mason, slowly getting up. "Did I mess up, Alex?"

"No! No, I did. Come on, let's go eat. I'm _starving._" I said, waiting for him to get didn't question my strange reply, just grabbed my hand, lacing his fingers in mine. We walked to the ice-cream shop across the street from the park. He ordered me a double chocolate, double-scoop on a waffle cone and got himself a rocky road, single scoop on a waffle cone. When we got our ice-cream, we walked outside, licking our ice-cream and looking at the stars. Eventually we were back at my house, not wanting to leave each other.

"I had a great time tonight. I don't want it to end." I said, looking into his hazel-y, green eyes. They are the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen, and they were looking into mine, completely oblivious to the world around us. He smiled and kissed my cheek.

"Then we'll re-enact it Friday, okay?" He joked, pulling me into a bear hug. I giggled and told him it was a date, to which he laughed again. We stood there for another five minutes, just hugging, him rubbing my back softly, me with my face buried in his neck, both of us enjoying the moment. We quickly broke apart when we heard a cough behind us. I played with my hair and Mason gave a weak smile to my dad.

"Hello Mr. Russo." He said, nervous. My dad had been a little skeptical about Mason since he turned into a wolf and broke my heart. But it had stopped for a while when he realized Mason wasn't going to hurt me again. Recently, though, he had been slightly mean to him again. I think it's because he knows I'm growing up and falling in love, and if I don't win the family wizard competition, we have to break up and it would basically kill both of us.

"Mason." He glared, his voice completely monotone. I smiled nervously at Mason and we said good night. Once I was inside and my dad had closed the door, I let out a growl.

"Dad! I thought you didn't mind Mason anymore! He's not going to hurt me! Okay? STOP RUINING MY RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM! He gets so nervous when we come by now because he never knows how you are going to react!" I screamed, turning to face him. My dad's face stayed completely blank.

"I don't mind him. But you can't keep seeing him. He might not hurt you now, but if you DO lose the competition, you'll have to break up or be eaten. I don't want you to keep seeing him because you'll only hurt even more."

"You make it sound like I AM going to lose the competition. Don't you think I can do it? Don't you believe in me?" I asked him, scared to hear his answer. Which unfortunately for me, he didn't even do. He just walked upstairs, leaving me to wonder what that meant. Which of course I know. He doesn't believe in me, he thinks I'm going to lose, without a doubt. Anger at him boiled through my veins. I stormed up to my room, deciding I needed to sleep it off. But after an hour of tossing and turning, I just laid on my back, covering my face with my hands, thinking about how wonderful tonight was before the end. Before the park he had pretended to show me the statue for the first time. I played along since I knew he originally was going to wait until today to show me. The statue really was beautiful. Every time I looked at it, it took my breath away. Mason was such a talented artist, but he rarely sculpted anything. He still frequently painted pictures of dogs as people, but I've gotten used to it by now. I see what he sees. It seems weird, but it's a way for him to express his love of dogs and his closeness to them without exposing himself.

I looked at the clock and sighed. It was 4:27 in the morning. My alarm was going to ring for school in about an hour and a half. I needed to get some sleep. But I couldn't no matter how hard I tried. So again I was stuck lying in my bed, aimlessly thinking about. . . well everything. I thought about Mason, my dad, Max, Justin, Harper, Chase. . . I bit my tongue. Chase! I needed to stop thinking about him. . . about. . . 'No! Alex! Stop it! You love Mason! There's no room for another guy!' I scolded myself. But it was so hard to not think about him. He was handsome, sweet, strong, _and_ he saved me. He helped me through a tough spot with Mason without realizing I had a boyfriend. I owe him a BIG thank you.

I must have finally dozed off because my alarm woke me up from a weird dream where I was marrying Mason, but when the priest said "speak now or forever hold your peace" Chase ran into the church yelling "I object!" A million people gasped as he ran up and kissed me. Mason was growling, but I was too shocked to stop him. When he stopped kissing me, he told me he hadn't stopped thinking about me after all of the years since that first day we met. He told me I needed to choose, Mason, or him. . . and I don't know what happened next because that's where my alarm woke me. Frowning, I turned off my alarm and dragged myself out of bed. I raked my fingers through my hair, trying to undo some of the knots while I processed my dream. I put on a pair of black jeans, a flowy white and blue striped tank top, and some old blue converse I had. I slipped on a silver necklace with a heart that had "Alex, the love of my life" engraved in it-from Mason on our six month anniversary. I smiled and walked downstairs.

My mom was making omelets for everyone when I walked down and it smelled amazing. I sat at the table, still contemplating my dream when my phone buzzed. I slipped it out of my pocket and opened the text message.

_Wait for me by the fruit stand. I want to walk you to school. –Mason _

I smiled. I didn't need to worry about anything. I love Mason, and that's all that matters to me. I wolfed down my omelet and poured my orange juice into a reusable water bottle as I ran out the door to meet up with Mason. I hoped that I wouldn't think of Chase again all day. Or my dream. But I didn't need to worry because as soon as I saw Mason I forgot about everything else and ran up and kissed him. Nothing in the world could stop me from loving him.

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><p>Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction, so i'm nervous on how well it's gonna turn out, but i hope you like it! Feel free to review it, like i said this is my first fanfic, and i'd love to have tips to make my writing better so you all can enjoy it more :)<p> 


	2. Harper's Advice

**I Do NOT own Wizards of Waverly Place**

It was a couple of days since I last saw Mason. I know he is busy lately because his parents are trying to renovate their . . . "home." Unfortunately for me, this meant I had a LOT of free time on my hands. And free time leads to thinking, which leads to. . . yup! Chase. I know nothing could happen because of Mason, but what if I didn't have Mason? Would I be ina relationship with Chase? Guilt flooded throughout me. How can I even think about that when I AM with Mason? I'm the worst girlfriend ever. I decided I needed to talk to Harper. I slowly trudged my way down the stairs, careful not to hit my head on the pipe that hung from the ceiling on the way down.

"Harper? Are you down here?" I asked, looking around for her. Her room was very cluttered with all kinds of artsy odds and ends. Her most recent outfit-in-the-making was a dress made entirely of small pieces of colored foil over plain white fabric. It actually looked really pretty, like a shiny mosaic, because the light danced on the different colors and textures, sending little beads of light around the room, giving it a kind of party look. Harper was spray- painting something in the corner of her room. When she heard me calling her she put down the spray paint can and turned around, smiling.

"Hey Alex! Do you like my newest creation?" She asked, pointing to the foil dress.

"Yes, actually, though if anyone asks me, I'll say no." I joked, Harper's smile faltered a little. "I'm kidding, Harper. I love it."

Harper seemed relieved, and she let out a deep breath. She made her way to her bed and plopped herself down on a unicorn pillow pet. She patted the bumblebee one next to her, telling me to go sit on it. I somehow made it through the clutter of art supplies on the floor and traded the bumblebee for the dragon. Harper gave me a funny look.

"What? I can't sit on a dragon?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. Harper laughed.

"Not this time. I just got him yesterday." She explained, pulling the dragon out from under my butt.

"Hey!" I laughed, falling backwards onto the bed. I sat back up, only to find the bumblebee in my face. I sighed. "Fine, I'll sit on the bumblebee."

"So what's wrong?" she asked, tilting her head a little.

"Who said anything was wrong?" I asked, wondering if she could read my mind.

"Well you only ever come downstairs to my room when something's wrong and you want my advice." She explained, playing with her hair, which was curled to perfection. She was wearing a headband with M&M's splattered onto it, with a matching shirt and a regular pair of jeans. I tried to look like nothing was wrong, but I just let out a big sigh and covered my face with my hands.

" I can't stop thinking about Chase." I said, shuddering once I realized I had just admitted it to Harper. 'No going back now." I thought. I heard her take a sharp breath. "I don't know what to do, Harper."

"Well. . .you could try talking to him. Why can't you stop thinking about him? Is there something you always think about when you're thinking of him?" she asked. I thought for a moment. Well, I always seemed to think about how he saved me, and I'll always owe him for that.

"I think about how he saved me." I said, looking up at Harper. She was biting her lip, trying to think of something to say that would help me. Finally she shook her head.

"Well the way I see it, you're only going to keep thinking about him if you keep thinking you owe him. Talk to him and see what her wants. Once you feel like you've paid him back, maybe you'll stop thinking about him." She suggested. I considered this for a while. Nodding, I thanked Harper and went upstairs to the lair. I was going to find him, and fix things. I couldn't keep feeling this guilty. It would only continue to torture me, and eventually Mason would find out if I kept acting strange. Justin was in the lair, attempting to teach Max how to study effectively. I snorted. 'Justin should know by now that that's never going to work. Max is basically a lost cause when it comes to school work.' I thought.

Justin heard me and looked up. "Oh, hi Alex. . . When did you get here?" He asked, giving Max a notebook and pencil. "Practice writing spells using the notes I gave you." He said to Max, getting up to most likely bother me. He walked over.

"Only a couple seconds ago. Don't you know he's hopeless?" I replied, pointing at Max, who was playing with his pencil like it was a wand. Justin sighed.

"Just hoping I can make a breakthrough. Dad asked me to." He said, running his hand through his hair. I just nodded.

"Alright, well I Need to go into the Wizard World for a little bit. Don't tell dad." I said, walking to the portal.

"What do you want me to tell him?" Justin asked, ever since Rosie tricked him he had become more willing to let me do what I wanted- and he never tried to stop me. I was liking this Justin more than the nosy, goody-two-shoes Justin. I stopped.

"Tell him I went to go get some more Deli Meats, and I'll be back in a couple hours." I said, opening the portal door, and walking into the Wizard world. Now I just needed to find Chase and fix everything.


	3. What Chase Wants

I arrived at the Beast Bowl Stadium a little after four, which according to the sign on the door, was right as Chase was finishing training. I waited nervously outside. What would he want? I was starting to wonder if I should go back when he walked outside of the stadium.

"Thanks, Bart! Make sure you fix that, we don't want any accidents during the next battle." Chase said to someone named Bart. He turned around and stopped, shocked to see me.

"Hi, Chase." I said, wishing I hadn't come. "I had a . . . question. But I don't want to ask you here."

"Hi . . . um . . . Yeah, okay. . . We can go to my house." He said. Clearly, this was just as uncomfortable for him as it was for me. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. When I opened them, my heart skipped a beat. Chase was looking at me intently. His eyes, oh, his EYES! They were like giant pools of chocolate, warm, inviting, and _extremely_ hard to resist. He took my hand and I flashed us to his house. It was a big house with marble floors and giant marble columns and was very well furnished. A fireplace in the back of the house was lit, making the house seem very cozy and warm. He walked over and sat on the couch, I followed closely behind him, taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch.

"Okay, what did you want to ask me?" He asked me, looking at me with his gorgeous eyes again.

"Uh. . . I just . . . Um. . ." I started. I shook my head, deciding I should look at the floor so I could concentrate. I found a little spot that had water pooled in it so I could see my reflection. 'Good enough' I thought. "I felt bad because you saved me the other day and I thought maybe I could do something to . . . repay you, or . . . uh . . . thank you for that. Anything you want." I said to my little spot on the floor.

"Anything?" He asked, making me a little nervous.

"Anything. Well . . . most things." I replied, hoping he wouldn't ask me out.

"Go on a date with me." He said, I looked up at him, my guilt doubling. "Just one, and it can be somewhere Mason won't find out."

I started to shake my head when he grabbed my hand. His hands were warm, and rough from working with so many beast-taming weapons. I felt my heart beat faster and my head go numb.

"Please?" He whispered, squeezing my hand. All of a sudden, I forgot about Mason. I could only think of Chase. I nodded, smiling to myself.

"Okay, one."

"How about we picnic in the Stadium, on Friday? I'll pick you up at your house at eight." Again, I nodded and smiled. "Perfect." He smiled, pleased with himself for getting a date with me. "I have to go get ready for a battle. See you Friday!"

I said goodbye and flashed myself into the lair. I walked around the house aimlessly, still in a daze when Harper walked up to me. "How'd it go?" she asked.

"I'm going on a date with him on Friday." I smiled, twirling. Harper's faced paled considerably.

"What?"

I frowned. "I'm going on a date with him. Aren't you happy for me?" I asked, smiling again at the thought of my date with him. Harper shook her head, muttering something about how this wasn't good. I ignored her and imagined our date again.

"Mason. Mason. What about MASON?" She asked, not even trying to hide her panic. I stopped. 'The name is familiar. . . OH. No . . . I didn't . . . but, I did. Oh no, what am I going to do?' I thought, realizing what I'd done.

"Ma-Mason. I-I-I. . ." I collapsed on the floor, holding my face in my hands, not even trying to stop the tears from falling. I had just set up a date with Chase when I'm dating Mason! I really am the worst girlfriend ever. 'If Mason finds out, he'll _never _forgive me.' I thought to myself, shuddering and crying even harder. Harper kneeled down and pushed the hair out of my eyes.

"Harper- what am I," I said between the hiccups I get whenever I cry, "going to do?"

"I don't know Alex. Maybe you should call off your date with Chase." She suggested. But I just shook my head.

"I can't - do that! I'll feel guilty - again. I can't do that - to Mason." I hiccupped. Harper pursed her lips.

"You'll hurt him worse if you go on the date."

"Not if - He doesn't - find out."

"I'll tell him."

"You can't do that - to me!" I screeched.

"Oh yes I can, Alex! Mason is just as much my friend as you are and I'm not going to let you destroy him for some stupid thing you feel because you sort of like Chase!"

"So now you're - calling me stupid? " I asked, sitting up and pouting.

"Well that's how you've been acting lately! Look, I know that not feeling guilty is some big thing to you, but everyone feels guilty at some point in their lives and they get through it. If I'd known Chase would ask you out, then I wouldn't have suggested going to him in the first place!" She argued. Angry, I stood up.

"Well then I guess this is all _**your **_fault!" I stormed out of the room, running upstairs to go hide in my room all night. I plopped down on my bed, stuffing my face in my pillow, crying until I ran out of tears. I curled up into a ball, ignoring the knocks on the door from my mom, Harper, and even Max. I didn't want anything to do with anyone. I thought going to Chase would fix everything, but the truth of the matter is I've messed up, and I have no idea how to fix it.


	4. The Day Before The Date

**I don't own anything.**

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><p>I woke up the next morning with a major headache and a queasy stomach. It was Thursday, which meant tomorrow was my date with Chase. I didn't know if I could handle going on the date. I wanted to so badly, just to stop feeling guilty, but Harper's words kept ringing through my ears. 'You'll hurt him worse if you go on the date.' Was it true? Would I really only hurt him worse if I continued with the date? My head said yes, but my heart hesitated. And weren't people always saying to follow your heart? Well I was going to follow mine and continue with the date with Chase. Mason doesn't need to know, and I can tell Harper I cancelled. Everyone will be happy, right? I could only hope.<p>

After twenty minutes of just laying around in my room, waiting for the rest of me to wake up, my head hurt too much-I needed an aspirin. I slowly made my way to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet, pushing various vitamins, pills, and liquids aside until I found what I needed. I took the aspirin and went back to my room to get ready for school. Maybe today would be a better day- there was only one way to find out.

The first half of my day went normally-Mason texted me saying he wanted to walk me to school, we walked to school together, and only grudgingly left each other's side for class. Biology was boring, since we were just reviewing. P.E. was sweaty and frustrating, since we were in our Soccer unit, and I still had no idea what was going on half of the time. Finally, when lunch came around my day was starting to get more interesting. Mason surprised me with Chipotle for lunch-my favorite, and Harper gave me a dress as an apology. She's done that before, but the difference in this dress being it was the foil one she had been working on, so I actually liked it. It was finished and it looked amazing. She said it would look perfect on me, better than it would on her, and at that I blushed, thanking her for the dress and letting her know I'd "cancelled" my date with Chase tomorrow. She seemed deeply relieved and told me I'd made the right choice. Max also came by to tell me he was going to move to Alaska to teach cavemen how to hula dance. I laughed and told him I'd help pay for tickets. He looked shocked but happily walked away, imagining his Alaskan cavemen hula dancing.

Art was right after lunch, and today had us painting our own interpretations of a sculpture he bought of a cowboy holding a basket of kittens-combining all of his favorite things. My cowboy resembled , and my kittens resembled different people I knew. The colors were more. . .Bright than I usually did. actually told me mine was the best in the class. Normally I wouldn't be surprised if he said that, but today it was special because I never did well on interpreting sculptures of these kinds of things. Usually they end up looking like deformed clowns with little mutant people in it.

When I got home I sat at the counter in the sub shop, telling my mom all about my day. She seemed just as happy about how well my day went as I did, and even surprised me by telling me she hoped I'd win the wizard competition because she wanted me and Mason to get married. I gave her a "i'm-too-young-so-don't-expect-anything-soon" look and she just shrugged.

I ended up in my room, doing my homework before dinner-something that almost never happens. I wanted to be done so I could spend time with Mason tonight, not having to think about Chase and how tomorrow could possibly turn out. I just hoped that the date didn't lead to any more unwanted feelings. I don't think I can handle any more sappy romance in my life. Besides, It was only to get rid of the guilt. Then I could go back to only thinking of how much I love Mason, and no one else. I thought about how wonderful that would be; worry free and madly in love with one person.

I was so lost in thought I hadn't noticed Justin walk into my room. I jumped when he asked how my homework was coming along.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized, helping me pick up the books I'd knocked over.

"It's okay, you didn't know." I replied, closing my biology textbook, and turning to face him. "So what's up?"

"I'm just curious about something. . ."

"Yeah. . .?"

"Are you okay? You've been very distant lately, and now you're doing your homework before dinner. I didn't know if maybe something happened between you and Mason."

"Oh. . . No, nothing happened, I just wanted to get it over with. And I got into a fight with Harper yesterday, that's why I was upset. But it's okay, we're good now." I smiled. Did he know about my date with Chase tomorrow?

"Okay, well. . . if anything does happen, let me know okay? I don't want him hurting you. . .again."

"It wasn't on purpose last time! I just. . .overreacted?"

"No, it was all his fault. I'm glad you guys are okay now, though. I like Mason. But I'll be there to protect you if anything goes wrong, okay?"

I chuckled a little at the thought of Justin actually fighting someone, since he wasn't necessarily the strongest person I knew, but he's done it before and I know he means well. "Thanks Justin." He nodded and got up to leave. When he closed the door behind him I turned over so I was laying on my back, looking up at my ceiling. Maybe I shouldn't do tomorrow. I have so many people offering to protect me if Mason hurts _me._ But what if _I _hurt _him? _Would everyone flip sides? I didn't know, and I didn't want to find out, but I didn't want to feel guilty about thinking about Chase all the time, so I decided (again) that the date was going to be a one-time thing. It would mean nothing, and it would just be to get this stupid guilt off of my shoulders. Then everything could be perfect again-the way it's supposed to be.

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><p><em>Hey everyone! thanks for all of the Story Alerts and favorites! I honestly had no idea that so many people would even bother to read this. It's awesome seeing so many people enjoying what i'm writing! Thanks for all of the reviews, too! I really appreciate any kind of constructive criticism or comments anyone has on the story-it helps me stay on track with what i'm doing. I'm hoping i can stick to this long enough to get to where i want to be with this, and i'm hoping i can make this semi-long, but i'm prone to suddenly not liking a story and stopping writing it completely, so let's hope that doesn't happen! Hahaha, once again, thanks everyone! :)<em>


	5. Discovered

**I do not own WOWP**

I woke up Friday morning feeling as if I needed a hug. Don't ask me why, I just felt I needed one. I trudged my way down the stairs, and nearly fell down more than once. I was very out of it. Mom was making French toast and waffles, and it smelled amazing. I couldn't wait until she served them, so I snuck up on her, tapped her right shoulder, and when she turned I quickly stole one off of the pan, accidentally burning my fingertips in the process, but it was worth it.

"Alex! You can't just take food off of the pan!" she exclaimed. I shrugged.

"I believe that's what I just did."

"No more."

"Whatever." I replied, sitting down at the table and stuffing the waffle in my mouth. When I had successfully finished stuffing the waffle into my mouth, I used magic to heal the burns on my fingers. "All better. Mom I'm going to meet Mason now." I got up and ran to the door.

"Alex wait!" I stopped in the doorway, turning around slowly, frustrated that she was keeping me from leaving.

"Yes?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Are you doing okay?" she asked. I let out a frustrated growl.

"I'm. FINE. Can I go now?"

"Alright. Fine, go."

I ran as fast as my feet would carry me to Mason. I saw him waiting for me at the fruit stand-like usual. I almost tripped over the stairs, but caught myself and balanced before I could fall. I blushed, but Mason was laughing.

"Nice save." He said.

"Thanks, I've been practicing." I replied, rolling my eyes.

"Ready? We have that exam in calculus today."

"Thanks for reminding me. I was actually thinking today might be a good day."

"Sorry, love. I'm just nervous about it."

"I know. I am too. But-," I lightly punched his arm, "I do believe you are going to ace it. You have the last few."

"But those were easy."

"Who says this one won't be?"

"Everyone who has already taken it."

"Liiiiiike?"

"Like, Megan and Tom from Art."

"They don't do any work. Of course they'd say it's hard."

"Love, you don't work either." He reminded me.

"Yes, but you see, I, should be _paid_ for how well I don't do work and still manage to pass." I countered, causing him to laugh.

"You think so? Because personally, I think you need to try a little harder. Just for these last few exams. I'll even help you study."

"Not tonight, though. Not this weekend either. No work on the weekends, that's my policy."

"So I'm guessing you think every day is the weekend, then?"

"Well, _duh!_" I laughed. We got to school a little earlier than usual, so we walked slowly to our lockers. I grabbed the biggest binder I had, guessing that was the one I'd need today, then slammed my locker shut and walked to class.

The exam was very easy-which is saying something because until Mason said something this morning about it, I had forgotten we were going to have an exam. But I think I aced it. Later at lunch, Mason sat next to me, with his eyes bugging out.

"Alex. . ." he started, his eyes darting everywhere. I've never seen him so nervous before.

"Mason? Are you okay?" I asked, reaching for his hand.

"I'm fine, yeah. . . fine. Sure, let's go with that."

"Mason?"

"Are you-"he started, but was cut off when Harper walked up, beaming.

"Hey hey hey guys! So guess who figured out the world's most fantastic hat idea?" she paused.

"Abraham Lincoln?" I offered. She made a buzzer sound and waited for us to answer correctly.

"I'm going to guess you have." Mason tried. She smiled again, and nodded until her headband slid off. She reached to pick it up and instantly shot into a story about how she had been thinking of popcorn and peanut butter for lunch when she was hit by a grapefruit-"Don't ask." She'd said- then she continued like that for the rest of lunch, and we still hadn't figured out what her hat idea was.

The rest of the day was extremely boring, and the walk home was silent. Harper was walking to my right, and Mason was on my left, holding my hand. He looked at his feet when he walked and only occasionally looked up at me, scrunch his face up as if he was trying to read my mind, then he'd sigh and look back to his feet. Harper was off in la la land, probably imagining her very special hat. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with Mason. Did he think he didn't do good on that exam today? I figured that maybe that was it. 'I should ask him about it.' I thought, then nodded slightly and asked:

"So Mason, what did you think of the exam today?"

"Uh, well, it was very easy, but I couldn't concentrate very well so I'm not sure how I did." He answered, making me nervous. Mason? Not being able to concentrate? This was new. The only time he ever lost his focus was when he thought another guy was hitting on me-he gets _extremely_ jealous sometimes.

"Oh no! Why couldn't you concentrate?"

"I had heard from Tom that-"

"Did I ever tell you guys about the hat I'm going to make?" Harper interrupted.

"HARPER!" I yelled.

"What?" She asked, confused. I shook my head-_Not now_-and turned back to Mason.

"What did you hear?" I tried again.

"Nothing, never mind . . . it's nothing. Just forget it." he said, shaking his head and letting go of my hand. 'I did something. What did I do?' I thought-and then it hit me. Tom-A.K.A T.J. is a wizard, too. T.J. has had it out for me since I turned our art teacher back into a 15 year old girl, He knows that Chase likes me-he's Chase' best friend. Of course, Chase would tell him about the one-time date. Therefore, T.J told Mason. 'I'm screwed.' I thought, wishing I could slap myself for even agreeing to the dumb date.

"Mason, is it me?" I asked. He froze, looked up at me, then snapped his head back down and mumbled 'no.' "Mason you're lying. It is me, Isn't it?"

"Maybe."

"What did I do?"

"It's not what you have done . . . it's what you're going to do." He said. My heart sunk. He did know, and he was trying to hide it so I wouldn't feel bad. But I caught on to him, and now I feel like I'm going to forever be stuck in this stupid black hole of a heart that I have.

"Mason . . ."

"Stop it, Alex. I thought you were over him." Harper turned to us now, her eyes wide. She mouthed 'you told him?' to me, and I shook my head: 'T.j.' Her mouth made a little 'o' and she looked at her feet.

"Mason, I only agreed to it so I could finally get over him!" I exclaimed-Wrong move.

"Finally? I thought it was a done deal. That's what you told me after the beast bowl!" he raged, clenching and unclenching his fists, trying to hold his concentration, trying to not wolf up.

"No, it _was_, but . . ." I sighed. "I don't have an excuse. I'm a terrible girlfriend."

Mason looked taken aback, but he frowned, opened his mouth like he was going to say something, decided against it, closed his mouth and just like that the conversation was over. He left once we got to the fruit stand, and Harper went straight to her room. I decided I was going to just sit and do my homework, and hope to keep my mind off of my fight with Mason. An hour later, I discovered it didn't work.

At eight I heard a knock at the front door, and I scrambled to get it before my parents. Chase was casually leaning against the door frame in jeans and a Beast Bowl T-shirt.

"Hey." He said.

"Let's get this over with." I growled, dragging him through the house and into the wizard portal.


	6. The Date Part 1

"Did I . . . do something?" Chase asked, opening the picnic basket and grabbing us both a paper plate. He held out mine to me, but I just glared at it. He set it down next to me. "Okay, so you don't want a plate. That's cool too."

"Hmph." I puffed, turning away. I didn't want to be here anymore. I'd had enough of Chase. I felt him staring at the back of my head. He wanted an answer. I wasn't planning on giving him one. Soon enough he understood that, and I heard him going to get himself some food from the basket. I could feel his disappointment radiating off of him.

"Did I?" He asked. I turned to face him, raising one eyebrow. "Do something wrong, I mean."

"I did." I answered, monotone. He looked confused, and took a sip from his root beer bottle; he swallowed and cleared his throat.

"What did you do?" he asked, dabbing his mouth with a napkin.

I took a breath. I should tell him. "I went on this date." I could see his heart sink, and he looked at his hands, which were busy playing with the napkin.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you really didn't want to come." He apologized, almost inaudibly. I let my anger go for the moment, and picked up the paper plate.

"It's just that I'm still with Mason. I shouldn't have agreed to it. I don't want to be mean," 'Yes I do.' I thought, "but It's only made things hard on my relationship. Technically this is ch-"I took a deep breath, "cheating."

Chase looked up at me, and I swear his eyes were wet. "You can go if you'd like." He offered. I considered it, then shook my head.

"I'm here. Might as well finish this." I said, knowing I would regret it later. His sad guy face disappeared, and he smiled. "So what's for dinner?" I asked, peeking into the picnic basket. I laughed when I saw the food he'd packed.

"What?" he feigned surprise at my reaction. Who wouldn't laugh?

"Chicken dinosaurs, Juice boxes . . . Push pops? You're just a giant five-year-old, aren't you?" I smiled, reaching for some chicken dinosaurs.

"You could say that, yeah."

"So where'd you get the root beer, then?" I nodded to the root beer in his hand. He looked at it, then back at me.

"Oh, did you want one?"

"Yes, please!"

"You might have to usemagic to conjure one up yourself, then." He laughed. I frowned.

"Fine." I said, flicking my hand. A giant root beer bottle popped into my hand, complete with mini umbrella and crazy straw. Chase's jaw dropped, and he dropped his root beer, causing it to spill all over his lap. I laughed, and reached for some napkins. "Use these." He thanked me and tried getting the root beer out of his pants. I couldn't help but laugh watching him.

"I look like I peed myself, don't I?" he grimaced, and I tried to stifle more laughter, but I failed.

"Yes, you do!" I giggled, "Do you want me to poof you up some new pants?"

"Could you do that, please?"

"Sure thing. But you are changing elsewhere. Got it?" I said, shooting him a i-will-hurt-you-if-you-try-something look.

"Of course."

I pulled my wand out of my boot and popped up some jeans for him. He thanked me again and went to go change. While he was gone I got up and walked around. The stadium was very large, and there were pictures of Chase and T.J. everywhere. I walked around, looking at each of the pictures and wondering why they were each put up. I came to one with a picture of Chase and T.J. smiling and each with one hand on a framed medal. It looked like a newspaper clipping, and the headline over it said "Local Beast Tamer and Friend Capture Minotaur Rampaging through Downtown."

"Wow . . ." I whispered, my eyes investigating the rest of the wall. There were tons of pictures like it, most of them with just Chase in them, though. He was a local superhero, it seemed. 'More than just a beast tamer, isn't he?' I thought.

"That was from a couple of months ago. The award itself is in the trophy room. Want to go see it?" Chase asked from directly behind me. I jumped out of my skin and turned to face him, my hand on my chest, trying to catch my breath. "Sorry, did I scare you?"

"A little bit, yeah."

"Well?" He asked, pointing to the picture, "Want to go see it?"

I thought for a moment. What could it hurt? "Why not?" I shrugged, and he motioned for me to follow him. We walked down many hallways, and I got lost very quickly. If I had been wandering on my own, I'd have no hope to get out. Eventually we reached a door that seemed no different from any of the others we'd passed.

"Here we are! The trophy room . . . Tell no one I brought you here, okay? We're not supposed to let visitors in."

"'Kay." He put his hand on the doorknob, and kept it there.

"Pause for dramatic effect . . ." he whispered, and I giggled. He turned the knob painfully slowly, and after five minutes I just reached out and opened the door, ruining his chances of continuing to torture me. Now that I knew there was a special trophy room, I needed to see it. When the door opened I gasped. I had guessed there would be a lot of trophies, but I was still shocked at seeing what looked like roughly 300 trophies lined along the walls inside of a large room. Gold trophies and medals sat on shelves that reached the top of the ceiling, about 20 feet up. It was very impressive.

"Holy cow!" I gasped, "That, my friend, is a _lot_ of trophies."

"Well now I know how many. A . . . lot . . .," He teased, pretending to write it down. "The medal is on the far wall."

I gave him a blank stare. "Okay."

He sighed, "Come on."

We slowly made our way through the crowded room, occasionally stopping so I could admire a particularly impressive trophy. He explained how he got each one, or how one of his friends got it, and each story seemed to beat the last on the impressive and dangerous scale. Finally, we got to the medal, and he took it off the wall, handing it to me.

"There you go. The medal from the minotaur capture."

"It looks so . . . official." I commented, looking at the medal, my nose pressed up on the glass of the frame holding it. Chase snatched it from me and wiped the glass.

"Hey! Careful! We really don't like it when people smudge things. They have to be . . . just . . . perfect . . ." he said, obsessing over getting the little smudge off.

"Sorry . . . I didn't know it was such a big deal." I apologized. Chase sighed and smiled, putting the once again perfectly clean framed medal back up on the wall.

"No worries. It's all better now. So . . . where were we?" He asked, turning to me again.

"Eating chicken dinosaurs?"

"Sounds good to me!"

We started walking back to the door, me first, with Chase following closely behind. When we reached the door, which Chase had closed in case someone walked by and saw us in here, I reached to open the door, but Chase's hand quickly shot out and slammed the door closed again.

"What are you-" I started to ask, but Chase roughly grabbed my shoulder with his other hand and spun me around. His face was uncomfortably close to mine. My head was telling me to get out of this situation any way possible, but I couldn't get to my wand to flash out.

"No. Stay for a while." He said, his breath smelled like mints and root beer.

"Chase, I can't! We have to finish dinner so I can go."

"No, not yet." He said, leaning closer.

"Chase . . ." I said, trying to back away, but the door stopped me. I could feel my self-control slowly slipping away, and felt the familiar flutter in my stomach. 'I want him to kiss me.' I thought, but caught myself. 'No! I can't! Mason. Don't forget Mason, Alex. You love Mason. Not Chase. ' Meanwhile, Chase was only leaning in closer.

"What would just . . . one kiss do? Would he break up with you?" he whispered, inches from my face; and the next thing I knew, he was kissing me, and I was kissing him back.


	7. The Date Part 2

**I do not own anything.**

'Chase is kissing me, and I'm kissing him back. Huh. The first date isn't even over yet . . . wait, first date? There's only going to be one. Why? I forget . . . OH! Mason. Crap. Wait, I'm still kissing Chase. Gotta stop, gotta stop, gotta . . .' I thought, pulling back. "Stop, stop."

"Is something wrong?" Chase asked, leaning in for another kiss. I slipped my hand up and slapped him.

"Yes, something is wrong. I have a _boyfriend_, Chase! You _know_ that! Yet you still kissed me." I yelled, reaching once more for the doorknob. Once again he stopped me, only this time more carefully. He put his hand on my shoulder.

"Wait. Don't go, please. I didn't mean to . . ." he trailed off, sighing when he saw the daggers in my eyes as I stared at him. "Okay, so I meant to kiss you. I didn't want to cause trouble, but clearly that's all I seem to be doing."

"Exactly. So just let me go, and we can just . . . forget about this, okay?" I said, feeling a fury I haven't felt since Mason told Juliet he loved her. But it turned out fine, because now he's with me again, and he loves _me. _

"Go. If you need help getting out, I can escort you to the front doors." He offered. I shook my head.

"As soon as I am out of this stupid trophy closet, I'm flashing out of here."

"Bye, then."

"Bye." I yanked the door open and stormed out, slamming it shut behind me. I looked around, and then decided to flash out farther away from Chase. I wasn't going home, not yet. I needed to talk to Mason, to apologize, for cheating. I found a small, empty hallway and pulled out my wand from my boot. I thought one more time about going to see Mason to apologize. 'Should I tell him about the kiss?' I thought, biting my lip. 'No, he doesn't need to know that. If I don't tell him he won't get hurt, right?' I nodded, and flashed myself to Mason's room. He was sitting on his bed, looking through pictures we'd taken together.

"Hi, Mason." I said, trying to concentrate on apologizing, and not the look of betrayal in his eyes, not the sadness and depression, or the fact that the shirt I bought him a month ago was shredded. Not the fact that, when he looked up at me, I could tell he had just been crying. Not about the kiss, or the date; only about the apology. He placed the pictures on his bed, and looked at me. When he didn't respond I took a deep breath. "Um, I was just coming to tell you that . . . um . . ."

I noticed Harper, sitting quietly in the bean bag chair in the corner of the room. She was watching me, her lips pursed. Mason inhaled loudly and stood up.

"Why are you here, Alex?" he asked me, and I just stared, looking back and forth between them. Harper raised an eyebrow. 'Why _are_ you here?' she seemed to be asking with her eyes.

"I came to apologize. What I did was horrible, and you deserve better." I admitted, looking down to my feet, wringing my hands.

"What you did was horrible. Awful, deceitful, a couple decades ago people would call it evil. Nowadays it happens everywhere-cheating." He said, watching me carefully. I looked up, and he walked over to me, his fist balled. I thought he was going to punch me, but when he got close to me, he opened his palm and I saw the necklace he gave me; the one he got engraved for our anniversary. "When I got this for you, it was because I loved you. I thought you loved me too, but apparently, you don't. Not enough to stay faithful, anyways."

"Mason, I'm sorry, I really am. Don't you see that?" I asked.

"It doesn't change the fact that you still went." His face went cold; he closed his eyes, closed his fist and turned his back to me. "That's where you came from, isn't it?"

"Yes, but-"

"Alex! Stop trying to apologize!" He yelled, gritting his teeth. "Don't apologize. You did it, and that's enough for me to know you don't care about me as much as I thought. Apologizing isn't going to help." I tried to talk, but he held up his hand, "Alex, if you want to prove to me you care, if you want to prove that you really do love me, you have to promise never to do it again. If you think you need to do something like that again, talk to me. Don't keep any secrets from me, okay?" I nodded. "Is there anything you want to tell me now? Anything you might want to keep from me about . . . Chase?"

'Do I tell him? I should, but he'd break up with me, and I don't want that. I don't think I ever will want that. So I won't tell him, I won't tell anyone. Only Chase and I will know it happened, and that way, Mason won't find out.' I thought, then I shook my head. "No, nothing."

He took a deep breath in, then hugged me, "I hate it when I think I could lose you."

"I hate keeping things from you. I promise, never again."

Harper coughed and stood up, "I hate to interrupt, but Mason and I were in the middle of a conversation. One that," she shot Mason a look, "_Needs_ to be finished."

I nodded, "I'll see you guys later. I need to get home anyways." I said goodbye and flashed myself into my kitchen. I flashed in in the middle of a conversation between my dad and my mom.

"Jerry, it's obvious that man came to talk to us because he thought I was Alex. I mean, I just look so young people confuse us as sisters, you know."

"Theresa, I don't think . . ." my mom shot dad a look. "Nevermind."

"Anyways, Jerry, did you want me to make my eleven cheese lasagna?" my mom asked, already walking towards the cabinet that held the "special" lasagna pan. My dad nodded enthusiastically and walked upstairs-probably to change into his special lasagna shirt. Yes, he does have one of those.

"Hey mom." I said, making my mom jump.

"Oh, honey, I didn't hear you come home. When did you . . .?"

"Only a couple seconds ago. So you're going to make lasagna? Yummy!"

"Didn't you eat already?"

"Um . . . no, not exactly." I said, walking around the counter to get to the fridge; More importantly-to get to the bag of chips on _top_ of the fridge. My mom swatted me away.

"No more chips! If you want lasagna, wait for it. It shouldn't take too long, I started making it earlier." She said, shooing me up to my room. "I'll call you down when it's ready."

**Meanwhile . . .**

"Do you think she was suspicious?" Harper asked, and Mason shook his head.

"No, you already told her we were good friends. Why wouldn't you be over here without her?" He replied, but Haprer wasn't convinced.

"She might have thought we were doing something!"

"Harper, you just came over to talk about the date with Chase."

"She doesn't know that!"

"She probably guessed."

Harper paused, then nodded. "That could be true. You know you really shouldn't take her back after what she did."

"I love her, Harper. Us werewolves are very loyal. I've mentioned this before. She was just in a rough spot. Now that doesn't mean I forgive what she's done, but I'm certainly not going to never take her back. I don't trust her as much, sure, but who would? I mean, she set up a date with another guy while she was still dating me. It's sick. But I know she meant well."

"Mason, you don't see that she's just going to do it again! Didn't you see that look in her eyes? She was guilty, and I'll bet you it's not about the date. Something else happened. I've known her long enough to know that."

"No, she would have told me."

"_No_, she wouldn't have. She's hiding something that she thinks you'd get mad at her for, I just know it."

"Well I don't believe it." Mason frowned, crossing his arms and sitting back down on his bed.

"Fine, don't believe me. But trust me, when she hurts you again, which she will; I get to say I told you so."


	8. Memories

**I Don't Own WOWP**

"Mom, have you seen my laptop?" I asked, peering under the couch. I heard my mom's footsteps as she walked over to me.

"Why would it be under the couch?" she asked me, and I shrugged, coming up to sit on my knees.

"Just an idea on where it could be. I use it on the couch a lot."

"That, you do." She paused, holding her coffee mug in both hands, feeling the steam rise to her face. "Have you checked the lair?"

"No, maybe that's where it is. Thanks, mom." I said, already racing to the lair. I needed my laptop for a school project. Normally I'd just poof up a project the morning of, but Harper is making me try to not use magic so much, in case I don't win the competition.

"You need to be prepared." She'd said. Now don't get me wrong- I have no intentions of losing. If I lose, I can't be with Mason, so naturally I'm going to win. I just know it. But, I promised her I would try a little harder. When I walked into the lair Max was napping on the couch with what looked like a drawing on his stomach. He was snoring lightly and when the door closed he twitched a little bit. My curiosity beat my need for my laptop, and I slowly crept over to the couch and snatched up the drawing. I had to bite my tongue to stop from laughing. Max had drawn a diagram on how he planned on teaching the Alaskan Hula Dancers how to Hula. I had to give him credit though; for him, it was a decent plan. I put the paper back on his stomach and walked around the room, my eyes scanning for my laptop. After ten minutes of searching I gave up, and walked out.

Harper was sitting on the floor of the sub shop's kitchen, cutting swiss cheese into triangles. Her red hair was plopped onto the top of her head, like she'd been too lazy to brush it, so she just piled it all on top of her head. She was wearing a dress inspired by roses and pansies, with little purple flats on. I sat next to her and watched her cut the cheese. I laughed aloud.

"What?" she asked me, stopping. I blushed.

"You're going to think I'm like, 10, but I was laughing because you're cutting the cheese." I said, trying to stifle my giggles again. She rolled her eyes, but laughed a little bit too.

"Ha ha ha, very funny Alex. I'm making a necklace out of the cheese. It's going to match my cheese hat." She explained, putting down the cheese. "Do you need something?"

"You know me so well." I said, reaching for a cheese triangle, but she swatted me away. "I lost my laptop. Any ideas on where it went?"

"I think it somehow ended up in my room. You brought it down two weeks ago to show me those shoes you liked. Remember?" I nodded, thanking her and running to her room to find my laptop. Her room was as crowded as ever with art supplies, and I saw my laptop on her sculpting table. Cautious of where I stepped, I slowly made my way to my laptop. I grabbed it, and was about to go upstairs when I noticed a picture on the table. It was of Harper and I when we were eight. Harper's front teeth were missing (she was a "late bloomer," as her dad called it), and she was wearing a pink pig suit. I was in the dress my mom pulled out for when Max was Maxine, and my hair was in pigtails. We were both laughing hysterically, sitting in Justin's room, surrounded by a pile of construction paper and glitter glue. Everything around us was a mess, but it was as if we didn't even care. I remembered that day-it was one of my favorite memories as a kid.

_"Harper? Harper, where'd you go?" I asked, running around the living room, trying to find my best friend. I heard a giggle from one of the kitchen cabinets under the sink and ran to it. "Found you!" _

_ "Aw, come on, Alex! I'm bored of Hide and Seek. Can't we do something else?" Harper whined, whistling on her S's, because of her teeth. _

_ "Well what do you want to do?" I asked, crossing my arms. She smiled and grabbed my arm. _

_ "Come on, Let's go to the new craft store across the street!"_

_ "But I don't have any money." I pouted, and Harper frowned._

_ "I have some. Come on! We can decorate Justin's room!" she sang, and I grinned. _

_ "Let's make it glittery . . . and pink!" I suggested, and Harper giggled._

_ "He won't like that."_

_ "No, but it'll be funny!"_

_ "Let's go, let's go!"_

_ We rushed to the craft store and bought two big packs of construction paper and three packs of glitter glue. When we got back, we raced to Justin's room and got to work. Justin was at some movie about aliens and wouldn't be home for another hour or so. We glitterified his Captain Jimbob Sherwood bed sheets, giving the captain princess crowns, fairy wands, and skirts. We cut up the construction paper and threw it around his room like confetti, pasting it to the walls with more glitter glue. _

_ "Alex? What if Justin gets mad at us?" Harper asked, eyeing our handiwork._

_ "He's a baby, everything makes him upset." I replied, shoving a pink glittery construction paper snowflake onto his robot poster. _

_ "Justin the baby!"Harper giggled, and I giggled too. _

_ "Baby Justin!" _

_ "can you imagine Justin in a diaper?" Harper asked, and that put us over the edge. We fell on the floor, laughing hysterically. My mom walked in and looked around. _

_ "Mija! What did you do?" she exclaimed, looking at the mess. We oculdn't reply because we were still too busy laughing. My mom looked at us, confused, then left, reappearing moments later with a camera. _

"Alex?" I heard Harper call down the stairs, jolting me out of memory lane.

"Coming, Harper!" I called, looking at the picture one last time before walking upstairs.

"So your laptop was in my room, then?" she nodded to my laptop, which was under my right arm. I looked at it, then nodded.

"Yeah, thanks." I said.

"Ready? Mason's waiting out front of the sub shop." I smiled absent-mindedly, thinking about the picture. Harper noticed and shook my shoulder. "Hello? Alex?"

"Do you remember when we were eight and we decorated Justin's room?" I asked, and she looked stunned, then laughed out loud.

"Of course! It took Your parents _months _to get rid of all that glitter."

"Yeah . . ." I smiled again.

"Why?" she asked.

"I saw the picture on your sculpting table. That was a fun day."

"That it was." She said, and for a moment, both of us remembered it.

Mason walked into the sub shop, and we heard him calling to us.

"Alex! Harper! Come on! We are going to be late!" Harper started walking towards the door, but I grabbed her arm.

"Wait!" She stopped, looked at me and waited. "Do you think he'll forgive me?" I asked. She looked in his direction, then back at me, sighing.

"I don't know if I should say this," she bit her lip, then nodded, "But I think he already has." I nodded, and we started to walk toward Mason. Inside, I was jumping and dancing and singing like a little girl who just learned she was a princess.


	9. Conscience Therapy

_"Alex, you're going to have to tell him." _

_ "I can't . . . Not yet . . . Possibly not ever." I said, biting my lip and shaking my head._

_ "Alex . . ."_

_ "No! Stop it! Stop telling me what to do!" _

_ "Now you know I can't do that. I am your conscience, after all." My conscience shook her head, reaching out to touch my shoulder. I pulled away._

_ "You're not giving me good advice." _

_ "Actually, I'm giving you excellent advice."_

_ "No. No, no, no! You're trying to break Mason and I up. Harper said she thinks he's already forgiven me." I explained, trying to convince my conscience that everything was fine. There was no reason to tell Mason about the kiss._

_ "That's what Harper thinks. You don't think that, do you?" She asked me, and I turned away._

_ "I don't know what I think, okay? I want him to trust me, but I don't believe he'd forgive me so easily. Cheating is a big thing, even if it was just to make my feelings for Chase go away."_

_ "I agree. And you're not going to make things better by hiding a huge fact from him."_

_ "I'm not going to make it better by telling him!"_

_ "You don't think so, but it's the truth. You might have a rough spot in your relationship, but you'll clear the air and not feel guilty about hiding anything. Isn't that how this all started? Guilt?" She questioned me, and I snapped._

_ "Stop it! Yes, okay, that's how this whole mess started, but it's over. OVER! Why make it bigger just because my stupid conscience thinks it's a smart idea to tell him about the kiss when in fact it's an absolutely HORRIBLE idea that would RUIN MY LIFE! Everything has gone utterly and completely WRONG and I'm just trying to fix it! Telling Mason Chase kissed me would only make things worse!" I screamed, wishing there was something I could throw at her. _

_We were in a completely white space, almost like being on a cloud. Nothing was there except for her, me, and the white emptiness around us. What frustrated me most was that my conscience looked exactly like me, except in a long silvery floral skirt and a white dress shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she had little silver-rimmed glasses on her nose. I, on the other hand, was in a pair of grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt with a band logo on it, with my hair messed up and no glasses. She watched me for a moment, then slowly shook her head._

_ "You don't get it, do you Alex?" She asked me, absent-mindedly smoothing her skirt down with her hands. I didn't answer, unsure of what she was talking about. "Alex, You're just repeating history here. Originally, you were guilty because you couldn't stop thinking about Chase. Quite simply you're solution was to go see what it was he wanted from you, to try to repay him for saving you. However, you decided not to tell Mason-to protect him. Then things went wrong when Chase demanded a date with you. You were reluctant but nonetheless agreed to it; again keeping it from Mason, again to protect him. Thirdly, you went on the date with Chase, angry at him for telling T.J. who told Mason about the date, ruining your attempts to protect him. During the date, Chase kissed you, and you kissed him back. You stormed out, angry again at Chase, and went to Mason. For what exactly, I'm not really sure. You saw him and decided to keep the kiss a secret, again to protect him. Are you seeing a pattern here? You keep things from him to protect him. But what are you protecting him from?" She questioned._

_ "Getting hurt." I answered, confused._

_ "Getting hurt from what?" she pushed. I frowned, the groaned._

_ "You're like a therapist. I don't like therapists, you know. Nosy, always trying to fix people whose business is none of theirs. Always trying to get their patients to get to the answer instead of simply telling them what's wrong." I argued, and she smiled. "What?" _

_ "Nothing," she shook her head, stifling a giggle then she looked me hard in the eyes and her temporary smile disappeared, turning into a half smile instead, "Alex, you're protecting him from yourself."_

_ "What do you . . .?" I started, knowing she was right but not wanting to admit it._

_ "Everything you've tried protecting him from-it's all your actions. All your thoughts, decisions, opinions . . . you were protecting him from that piece of you that doesn't believe you can stay faithful to Mason."_

_ "I love him." I glared, my anger at her increasing by the millisecond._

_ "I don't doubt it." she said, "But do you love Chase?"_

_ "No! And I never did."_

_ "But you kissed him."_

_ "He kissed me first. I tried to get away!"_

_ "In the beginning, but you kissed him back."_

_ "Because I couldn't think straight!"_

_ "And why was that?"_

_ "Because I like him!" I screeched, then I stopped, my hand clasping over my mouth, my eyes wide in horror at what I'd just said. My conscience just nodded, as if she'd won some major battle. I shook my head slowly, jamming my eyes shut, fighting the tears threatening to appear. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and this time I didn't pull away. "No, no I don't. I don't. I . . ."_

_ "It's okay."_

_ "No it's not! I can't like someone else when I'm in love with Mason!" I snapped, shoving my conscience away from me._

_ "Why not?" she asked, ignoring the fact that I just shoved her._

_ "Because it's wrong!"_

_ "Why?"_

_ "Because . . . because . . ."_

_ She took a deep breath in, "Look, Alex. You love Mason, correct?" _

_ I nodded. _

_ "And you'd do anything to keep him happy, correct?"_

_ Another nod._

_ "But you like Chase."_

_ More nodding._

_ "And you are unsure of who to be with and what to do-especially since Chase kissed you, making everything much more confusing."_

_ A nod._

_ "Do you want my help?"_

_ I hesitated. "Possibly."_

_ "Good enough for me. Here's what I think you should do: Get Mason alone and explain everything that has happened, from start to finish. Tell him every little thought that crossed your mind on the subject, every conflicting thought, every attempt to stop yourself from falling for Chase, every time you simply forgot about him because you were with Chase." _

_ "But-" I started to protest, but she raised a palm to silence me._

_ "After explaining everything to him, tell him you need a break to sort through your emotions and figure things out. Start spending time alone for a little while, write down how your feeling each day on the matter. Think about the pros and cons of both Chase and Mason. Give yourself as much time as you need to decide. Then bring them both together and tell them both, at the same time, which one you choose. That way they are both witnesses. Bring Harper if you'd like, although I wouldn't recommend it. She may be your best friend, but this is a very personal thing, and she might try to influence you one way or another. This should be 100% your own personal decision-no one else's. Understand?"_

_ I nodded, and she smiled, "Thanks."_

_ "It's my job to keep you somewhat rational." _

_ "Ha. Can I go now?" I asked._

_ "You could've left at any point." She stated, to which I growled._

_ "What?"_

_ "You're asleep. The only way I can contact you when I'm not an actual person outside of your head is through your dreams. You only needed to wake up."_

_ "Seriously?" I asked._

_ "Seriously." She answered, "I'd get going if I were you. You have a lot of explaining and thinking ahead of you." _

_ "Bye."_

_ "Goodbye, Alex." And just like that she disappeared._

_ "Finally." I muttered, then jolted awake and into reality. Like my conscience had said- I had a lot to do._


	10. Flashing In and Out

I'd decided I was going to tell Mason thanks to my conscience. The problem was I didn't know how to. Should I write him a note? Or maybe tell him in person? I wasn't used to telling my boyfriends about these kinds of things. I couldn't talk to Harper about it, then she'd know I lied to Mason about the kiss, when I told him there were no more secrets. I couldn't talk to my mom or Justin, and my conscience hasn't shown up since that night. I had to face the facts: I was stumped and scared.

I was sitting on my bed with the door to my room shut, locked, and barricaded closed-it was a habit I had when I needed to think and didn't want any intrusions. Of course I couldn't do anything about flashing in, except for maybe some plastic, which I have a giant lack of in my room. I bit my lower lip and looked around my room. Was there anything I could use to help break it to Mason? That made it sound like I was breaking up with him, which is probably how it would end up. Breaks are breaking up, right?

My head hurt from all of the thinking, so I got up and started pacing. 'Which way of telling him would hurt him the least? Definitely not a note; Big no-no there. If I told him in person . . . no I couldn't do that. Texting is mean, same as calling. Email? No, that's the same as a note.'

"Gah!" I cried out in frustration, picking a pillow off of my bed and throwing it at the wall. "This is too complicated. I can't do it."

"Do what?" I jumped out of my skin and turned to face the intruder. It was Max, dressed as a caveman. I tried stifling my laughter, but failed miserably. He looked ridiculous. He had on one of our mom's leopard skirts that she never wore and held a wooden spoon in his hand with either dirt or oil on his face. He didn't look much like a caveman, but I knew him enough to know that was what he was going for. He gave me a funny look.

"Sorry, Max."I apologized, "Nothing's wrong."

"That's not what I asked." He said, inspecting the wooden spoon.

"Um . . . yes, yes it is-was! Yes, it was. "I stumbled, confused that for once he remembered something he'd said moments before. His short attention span usually made him forget things he said, unless he wrote it down. He looked at me, then back at his spoon and shrugged.

"Whatever."

"So . . . Max, why are you in my room? I kind of . . . uh . . ." I pointed to the barricaded door, "didn't want . . . . visitors."

He stared at the barricaded door for a moment, his face completely blank, when all of a sudden he smiled and ran to the door, reaching for something. He grabbed a cardboard box filled with things I'd taken from Justin's room. I'd transferred everything from its original box into this one because it was bigger-more room for anything new I decided I wanted to take. He turned back to me, excited.

"These are Justin's, right?" he asked, looking through the box. I nodded. "Then his old wand phone thing is in here, right?"

"I don't know. Why?" I asked, already fearing what his answer would be.

"So I can call the cavemen in Alaska and make an appointment to teach them hula dancing." He answered.

"Oh. Okay. Could you look for it . . . in another room?"

"Alright but someone is going to have to unlock the door." He said, pointing to it.

"Max, you can just flash out."

"Oh . . . yeah. Thanks Alex!" he beamed, flashing himself out of my room. I sighed and fell back onto my bed, rubbing my face with my hands. I had no idea why Max even bothered to come into my room in the first place, but I pushed that off my radar for the time being. It was probably just to talk about Alaska, or cavemen or something. I thought through what might happen if I told him in person. I'd tell him, then ask for a break. 'No, I should ask for a break first. Right?' I shook my head. 'Back to the beginning . . . which oddly enough I never left.' I thought. I let my mind wander for a few minutes, then snapped back to thinking about telling Mason.

I sat up, I just needed to tell him in person, and I needed to do it soon or I would explode. I looked around my room for my wand and as I picked it Max flashed back into my room. I wished I had found my wand sooner.

"Alex, I forgot something." Max said, looking around my room.

"What did you forget?"

"Oh, uh . . . I don't know, I forgot."

I let out a frustrated growl and helped Max look around my room for anything that looked Max related. After half an hour of searching Max jumped onto my bed, whacking my pillows with his spoon. Angry, I walked over and took the spoon from him.

"MAX!" I yelled, pointing at him with the wooden spoon, "What did you forget, because I need to get out of here and I can't leave you alone in my room."

"Why not?"

"Because you're stupid and would break something!" His smile faded and he frowned for a moment, I almost felt bad. Then he shrugged.

"Yeah, I would." He agreed, crawling off my bed. We took one last sweep around my room, looking for anything that could be his, but we still came up empty handed. Finally he flashed out, and I looked around. I needed to clean my room before I left or my mom would kill me. 'Nothing a little magic can't fix.' I thought, and as fast as the blink of an eye the mess was gone. I smiled at my fantastic cleaning skills, and then once again raised my wand to flash out to Mason's room. Once again Max flashed in, and I let groaned, clenching my fists.

"I remembered!" he said, smiling as if it were an accomplishment. I rolled my eyes.

"So what is it you left?" I asked, and he looked at me, confused.

"I didn't leave anything, I remembered what I was supposed to tell you!" he said, and I wanted to punch him.

"So you made me look through my room for almost an hour looking for something you lost which it turns out doesn't exist?" I asked, trying not to go and punch him, which was sounding like a really good idea.

"I thought you were missing something, so I was helping you look for it."

"Just forget it, okay? What is it you wanted to say?"

"Oh, yeah. Chase is here."


	11. Hatred And Pain

"What?"

"Chase is here. He's waiting downstairs."

"What?"

Max looked confused. "Chase is downstairs. Didn't I say that?"

"Uh . . . I'll be down in a minute." I told him, and opened the door so he could walk out. Max hesitated for a minute, still confused. He shook his head and walked out, almost running into the doorframe. Once he was gone, I closed the door and ran my hand through my hair. I needed to figure out how I was going to handle this. I could just go down, tell him I don't want to see him for a while, and then leave, or I could go and talk to him, figure things out. Like a mummified zombie, I walked slowly down the stairs to find Chase sitting on the couch, drinking an iced tea. When he saw me he waved and gave me an I'm-sorry-but-I-couldn't-stay-away look.

"Hey." He said, taking a sip of the tea.

"Hmph."

"Can I talk to you?" He asked, setting the tea down and walking towards the stairs. I took a step back up and he stopped, raising his hands. "Alright, so you don't want to talk. Then will you please listen?"

I shrugged. I didn't know if I'd listen or not, I only knew I didn't want him to be here. He pointed to the deck. I nodded and followed him out, standing just a few feet from the door. He sat down on one of the chairs, both of our backs facing the house.

"Look, I like you. You know that. I don't know if you like me or not, but, that doesn't matter right now." I raised an eyebrow, "It's not why I came here. I don't want to have just one date. I don't want to sneak behind your boyfriend's back."

"That makes you sound terrible."

"I know, but what I meant was . . . I want to be your boyfriend. Not him." He waited to see if I'd react, but my face stayed neutral. He took a deep breath before continuing, "I also wanted to apologize for the date. " I glared at him, "I'll admit it had been my plan from the beginning to kiss you, but I didn't know you'd get so uptight about it."

"You . . . didn't know? You didn't even think that I'd be angry? Honestly, you really thought that?" I asked, feeling anger starting to swell up inside me.

"No, I didn't."

"Even though I'm dating Mason, and I _love him_, you didn't know I'd be mad when you _kissed me_ behind his back?" I exclaimed, trying to control my anger, and only barely succeeding.

"You're the one who agreed to the date in the first place, Alex."

"Don't accuse me of that! It was your idea! I said yes because I had to!"

"You had to?" he looked hurt and his eyebrows, knit together- trying to make sense of it.

"Yes, I had to! I can't be thinking about you when I'm dating Mason! I went to ask you if I could repay you for saving my life, and you wanted a date! So sorry if I hurt you, but everything I did, was for Mason."

His jaw tightened, "So kissing me . . . that was for Mason?"

"You kissed me."

"You kissed back."

"You kissed him?" a voice behind us said. I felt my heart stop right then and there. I turned around to find Mason standing in the doorway of the deck-confusion and hurt and hatred written all over his face. I stepped toward him.

"Mason, I-"

"Stop!" he held up his hands, "I'm done hearing excuses from you."

"Look, Mason-Can I call you that? Doesn't matter, I'm going to anyways- I kissed her. Just face it, she's over you-Otherwise she wouldn't have kissed back." Chase spat, standing up slowly, glaring at Mason.

"Chase!" I exclaimed, but both of them shoved me out of the way. Chase shoved Mason, and Mason growled, clenching and unclenching his fists. I could see him battling with himself, he couldn't wolf up, it would pin him as dangerous and Chase would have an excuse to fight back with any beast taming weapons, other than, you know, hating him because I love him. Chase swung at Mason, but Mason ducked in time and swung up at Chase, hitting him square in the jaw.

"Ah!" Chase exclaimed, staggering back a little bit, but he regained balance soon enough and lunged at Mason, who jumped out of the way; knocking over a chair in the process. That was it, Mason wolfed up, and Chase laughed. "You're dating a werewolf? Awesome . . . for me."

Mason growled and snapped at him, almost biting Chase's head off. "Woah! Down boy!" Chase cackled, kicking Mason in the stomach, causing him to fall backwards over the other chairs. He stood up and jumped at Chase, scratching right next to his eye. Chase grabbed Mason's hand/paw and twisted it away from him, but Mason used his other hand to attack. For almost ten minutes they continued fighting, and all I could do was stand there, watching them stupidly. Right as I came to my senses, Chase kicked Mason so hard he stumbled backwards over the railing.

"Mason!" I screamed, racing to the railing, reaching out to him, but I couldn't reach him. I felt tears sting my eyes, and I didn't resist them. I ran as fast as I could to where Mason fell, tripping and stumbling because the tears were blurring my vision.

"Somebody call 911! NOW!" I cried, racing through the front doors of the sub shop. I cried even harder when I saw him. He was on the ground, his arms bent in unnatural angles, his right leg clearly broken. His head was bleeding and he was unconscious. He was back to normal-that is; he wasn't wolfed up. My hand shot to my mouth, and I heard someone walk up behind me. I felt Chase's hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it away. I turned sharply around, a newfound hatred for him boiling up inside of me. "You!" I jabbed his chest with my finger, "Everything was so _simple_ before you came around! Mason would be _okay_! He wouldn't be mad at me, he'd _trust_ me, he wouldn't be like . . . like _**this**_! You did this to me, to him, to _us._ And _**you **_are going to pay for it!"

Chase stepped backwards, but I swung at him, punching him square on the nose. There was a loud_ crack_, and blood started pouring out of his nose like a faucet. I swung again, giving him a black eye. I kneed him in his stomach and he doubled over, coughing and moaning. I continued kicking him and screaming at him. Anger, rage and fear clouded my mind, and I didn't notice my dad and Justin until they were carrying me away from Chase. I kicked and screamed and struggled, trying my hardest to get back to Chase, so I could make him hurt as much as Mason did.

"He did this! He did this! Let me get him! He did this!" I screeched, squirming in my dad's grasp, kicking Justin in the knee, but they wouldn't let me go. "He pushed Mason! HE DID THIS!"

"Alex, honey, you need to calm down." I vaguely heard my dad tell me, but I wouldn't listen. Chase was going to pay, whether it was now or not didn't matter- Although I'd prefer it to be now. I stopped kicking but continued to struggle. They carried me into the sub shop, up the stairs, into my room, and set me on my bed. Justin sat on my legs so I couldn't get up, and took my wand out of my boot. He gave it to my dad, who searched my room for any other ways out. Once he was certain he'd gotten rid of any escape options, Justin got up and they raced out of my room. I heard the lock on the door click and screamed, running to the door and punching it as hard as I could.

"You can't lock me in here forever! I will get out! And when I do, Chase had better watch his back!"


	12. Confused

I was numb all over. I couldn't think even a simple thought. The only thing in my head was an annoying hum that I didn't bother to try and stop. It had been two days since Mason's fall, and no one would tell me if he was okay. I was starting to believe he was dead when there was a knock on my door. I groaned, and threw a pillow at the door, but the person opened the door. My mom poked her head in and gave me a half smile.

"Mi hija? May I come in?" she asked, walking in anyways. I rolled over from my comfortable spot on the floor, wrapped in blankets and surrounded by pillows and pictures of Mason and I. She sat down next to me on the floor and patted my knee. "I have some good news. Mason is going to be okay. He'll be in the hospital for a while but nonetheless he'll be okay."

"Really?" I asked, feeling the stupid, dumb tears coming back. "He's going to be okay?"

"Yes, mi hija. He'll be alright. But . . . the police are going to come by later today and ask you about what happened, and I need you to be honest. But I want to know, and I want to hear it from you, not some police officer. Because I know you, and most likely you'll leave something out-which by the way, is terrible. You _should_ tell them everything, but at the very least tell me what happened." And so I did. For the next hour I explained everything that happened in the past couple of weeks, and the more I told her, the better I felt. When I finished she ran her hand through her hair; thinking about how she was going to respond.

"Mom?" I asked weakly, feeling the tears (which had temporarily disappeared) coming back, "What do I do?"

"There is this saying my mother used to always tell us when we had boy problems. It was . . . what was it? Oh, yeah. It was: **El amor es****un laberinto de****callejones sin salida****y las trampas****, ****y****todo lo que puedes****hacer para llegar a****una****solución****que****se****trate****.** It means: Love is a maze with dead ends and traps, and all you can do to get to that one solution is try." My mom smiled, patting my knee again. I nodded, thinking it over. "I think you should listen to it. It's very good advice, mi hija. And if you listen to your heart, then you will find that way out. "  
>At that she got up and left, reminding me as she quickly walked out the door of the police visit later. I stared at the ceiling, thinking about it.<p>

'Love is a maze with dead ends and traps. So . . . people?' I thought, noticing the annoying hum was gone, 'and all you can do to get to that one solution is try. What solution?'

"The way out." I heard someone say, and I jumped, my heart leaping with me to my throat. I looked around for the person but couldn't find anyone. "Go to the mirror."

Cautious, I walked over to the mirror above my dresser and looked at it. All I saw was my reflection. 'My reflection . . .' and then it hit me. "Conscience!"

The mirror me smiled and nodded. Then mimed: "I can't talk." I cocked my head to the right- my signal for "WTH?"

"But you just . . . you did talk."

She nodded, and then pointed to her . . . I guess my, head. "It was in my head?"

Another nod. She closed her eyes and started mouthing words, and I could half hear them now. They were very quiet, though, so I had to close my eyes to concentrate on what she was saying.

". . . Loophole. I can talk to you when you're awake, but it's very hard."

"Okay, so . . . do you hear what I say out loud? Never mind, of course you do." I shook my head, and mirror me tried to grab something. That's when it registered that she was still in my head, so she moved when I moved. She nodded again. "So why are you here?"

"Things didn't go as planned. You didn't talk to Mason soon enough, and now everyone is paying for it. This wouldn't have happened had you just sucked it up and told him." She glared, crossing her arms and shaking her head.

"Well I was going to tell him, but Chase showed up!"I argued.

"And you chose to acknowledge him instead of simply going to talk to Mason, like you probably would have normally done. You are way too obsessed with him." She said. I almost punched the mirror.

"FYI, I pretty much beat the crap out of chase because of what he did to Mason, I wouldn't do that to someone I was obsessed with, much less liked, or even loved."

My conscience smiled, and touched her nose. I was confused, again.

"Bingo!"

"What?"

"You got it!"

"Got what?"

"Figure it out."

"But apparently I already got it."

"Yes."

"So why can't you tell me?"

"Because you got it and it's against my rules."

"I hate you."

"I know."

"Gah! Just tell me!"

"Sorry, no can do."

"But I got it!"

"So figure it out."

"What? If I got it why do I need to figure it out?"

"Because you don't know what you got."

"But I got something."

"Yes."

". . . Have I mentioned that I hate you?"

"Maybe once or twice."

"Well I do."

"I know."

"Can you at least help me?"

"I . . . go . . . not . . . longer." My conscience faded in and out, like she wasn't going to be able to be here much longer. 'Oh, that would be what she just said.'

"What? No! Don't leave! I'm so confused!" I cried, trying to grab her in my mirror so she could stay. She smiled apologetically and shrugged, mouthing 'I'm sorry,' about a billion times. Finally she disappeared and I was left alone, again, and even more confused than before. 'What did I say? Something about Chase . . .' I sat down on the edge of my bed, drumming my fingers on the comforter. "Ah! I give up!" I cried, lying back down. " I want to see Mason."

"I'm sure he wants to see you, to." I heard, and I sat upright.

"Conscience?" I asked, hopeful.

"No, Harper. I'm at the door. Are you okay? You've been talking to yourself . . . I got worried. Are you on the phone?" she asked.

"No . . . ." I sighed, getting up to let Harper in. She was at the door in a completely pola-dot outfit. Polka-dot shorts, a polka-dot tank top, a polka-dot headband/hat/thing, and even polka dot shoes. "Holy mother of polka-dots."

"Do you like it?" she asked, spinning.

"Yeah . . . Why are you here?"

"Oh, the cops are here. Well, actually, they've _been_ here. I didn't want to interrupt your . . . talking session. So I waited until I thought it was over."

"What?"

"They're here."

"For how long?"

"I don't know, like, ten minutes?"

"And you let me keep them waiting?" I exclaimed, waving my arms to prove my point (although I'm not sure what my point was . . .)

"I'm sure Max is keeping them entertained. You know him. Oh! I forgot to tell you, Zeke and I are going to a clogging festival later, and won't be back until late tonight. Do you think you can help Max study? It was my night to help him . . . and now I'm not going to be here."

"Yeah, yeah, fine. I should really go talk to the cops now." I pointed in the direction of the stairs.

"Right, okay, well good luck!"

"For what? I'm just telling them how he fell."

"I know." She gave me a big hug and then an apologetic smile.

I was more confused than ever.


	13. The Interview

"Thank you for joining us Miss Russo." said a big, balding police officer as I walked into the living room. I shrugged.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I?" I asked, sitting down on the couch, resting my feet on the table and popping a piece of gum into my mouth. The officer watched me carefully before beginning, probably trying to figure out what "type" I was. You know; cooperative, annoying, hesitant, sarcastic-my type.

"I'm Officer Wigman. You can call me Officer Wigman."

"Cool. I'm Alex, you can call me Alex. Kay, Wiggy?" I smirked, smacking my gum. Wigman glared at me through super tiny glasses that looked like they would fit better on a five-year-old.

"I'm here to ask you about the accident involving a Mister Mason Greyback and a Mister Chase Rickroff. You were reported as a main witness. Did you see what happened?"

"Well I believe I did. 'Cause apparently I am a witness-A _main_ witness. That makes me important, doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"So what other obvious questions need answering?"

Wigman sighed and ran his hand over his face, "We need to know what happened so we can do a proper trial. This could be tried as attempted murder."

"Attempted murder? It was an accident!"

"Now see, we don't know that because you won't tell us anything."

"I don't like you. Where's Mason? Which hospital is he at? I want to see him. MOM!" I called, turning around and waving at my mom-who was busy trying to make cookies to apologize for my behavior-something she did often.

"Not now, sweetie." She called, mixing the dough even faster-something she did when she was nervous (also done quite frequently).

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" asked Wigman, and I sighed.

"I guess." I looked at him. He waited patiently for about ten minutes, then he started shaking his leg, then wringing his hands, then finally he stood up.

"I need you to tell me what happened."

"And I said I'll tell you." I replied.

"Then tell me."

"I never said _when_ I'd tell you."

"Tell me now or it goes in the files as attempted murder." He threatened, pointing his big ugly finger at me. I popped a bubble and stared at his finger, waiting to see what he'd do.

"You are not very good at waiting, Wiggy, are you?" I asked, and he continued staring at me, his finger remained in my face. I shoved it out of the way, sighing dramatically. "Fine, I will tell you what you need to know."

After I told the officer mostly everything (what? I'm not going to tell him this only happened because Chase kissed me. The guilt is bad enough. I don't need a lecture.) , I went to my room and flopped on my bed. Telling the truth-or most of it- is very tiring. 'I don't know how normal people do it.' I thought, rubbing my eyes. I needed a nap. Now. Before I exploded from exhaustion.

"Knock knock." Said a voice at my door; I groaned and turned to face the person, finding Justin.

"Ew. Who let _you_ in?"I asked, propping my head up on my elbow.

"Hey. I thought maybe you wanted to visit Mason. I could drive." He offered, making me sigh and sit up completely.

"Alright, maybe I DO want to visit Mason. But I don't have the energy."

"Have a mountain dew, or coffee. I was going to meet Zeke at a Robots Of America convention a block away from the hospital. I thought maybe I could give you a ride."

"Because I, Alex Russo the wizard-who could just flash in, need a ride."

"Well you can't flash in, though. You don't know who would be there." He pointed out, and I rolled my eyes.

"Alright. Give me a minute to find some mountain dew . . . and my shoes."

"Okay, I'll be in the car. I need to call Zeke anyways. He's out with Harper and I told him I'd call when I was-"

I put up a hand to stop him, "Please spare me the details. I don't want nerd-talk crowding my tired mind. As it is, I need to concentrate on two things-three, actually- at once; Way too much thinking. I don't know how people do it. Multi-tasking is supposed to be drinking a soda while eating and watching TV and reading a magazine. THAT is quality multi-tasking."

Justin shrugged and walked out, leaving me alone to find matching shoes and a mountain dew. I looked for my new sandals and eventually found them hiding in my sock drawer in my dresser. The whole time I was thinking about what I would say to Mason. I didn't want him to be mad at me, although I knew he wasn't going to be happy with me. That was an unavoidable fact. 'Is there anything I can do to maybe . . . avoid the worst of the storm?' I thought, fishing a Mountain Dew out of the mini fridge I keep next to my bed. I stuffed it into my purse and raced out the door to go meet Justin and visit Mason.

As I was racing out the door, my mom called me back.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"To visit Mason."

"No, you are not. You need to finish that Spanish project you keep putting off."

"But, mom-"

"No buts young lady!"

"Justin is taking me."

"Oh . . . he is?"

"Yes."

"And you're going with him?"

"Yes, mom."

"Alright, go. Spend time with your big brother. But when you come back you're finishing that project."

"Okay, mom. Thank you!"

"Tell him I say get well soon!" she called as I closed the door.

Justin was sitting in the car, bobbing his head to something nerds listen to. I stood there, watching him "dance" for a minute, and I couldn't stop myself from laughing. I stumbled over to the car and knocked on the car door's window. Justin jumped and looked at me, his face going red. I heard the door unlock and opened the door, sliding into the passenger seat.

"Nice moves." I commented, mimicking his terrible dancing and bursting out in another round of laughing.

"Okay, let's go."

"Please."

"Alex!"

"What?"

"You said please!"

"So? I'm in a good mood."

"But . . . I mean . . . you said _please_. Without being forced or drugged."

"I said I'm in a good mood. Don't push it, Justin. I want to see Mason."

Justin nodded and backed out of the parking lot. The ride was pretty boring, and it felt like forever. Although, that might just be because I normally flash somewhere. 'Maybe Harper was right, and I should take driving lessons.' I thought as we drove past an ice cream shop. I watched a little girl walk out with a vanilla ice cream cone. She held an older woman's hand-maybe her grandmother- and skipped happily away, towing her grandmother behind her. I smiled, remembering when I used to do that with my grandmother. 'I miss her.' Finally we arrived at the hospital and Justin dropped me off. I didn't look back as I rushed into the hospital, but I heard Justin drive away.

The inside of the hospital was gray and depressing. The floor was dull and a dark gray, reminding me of storm clouds. The walls matched perfectly, and only one or two chairs were available in the waiting room. The woman at the desk had her hair pulled back into a tight bun, and wore a light blue suit, making her stand out in the gloomy room. I walked up to her and tapped the desk impatiently. She didn't look up from her computer. I coughed. No reaction.

"Excuse me, ma'am? I was wondering if you knew what room Mason Greyback was in."

"Room 349, third floor, on your left." She said, her eyes still locked on her computer screen and her fingers busy typing up something. I turned and started walking towards the elevators, and I heard her call behind me, "Your Welcome!"

I grunted in response and stepped into the elevator. 'Floor 3, here I come.' I thought, then frowned. 'What if he doesn't want to see me? . . . No, I'm his girlfriend . . . I think. He's going to be glad to see me. Why wouldn't he?'


	14. The Decision

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._ The heart monitor beeped softly in the background of the room. I was sitting in Mason's hospital room, next to the bed. When I came in he was asleep, and I had decided to stay until he woke up. He looked terrible. He was covered in casts and bruises and he had quite a few stitches in his head. 'On the bright side, he's alive.' I thought, studying the heart monitor with intense interest. I looked at Mason. His head was on its side and he was snoring softly. I thought over the past week or so, and everything that had happened. I thought about Mason, and everything we had been through together, and then I thought about Chase.

"I'll be right back, Mason." I whispered, leaning down to-very, very gently-kiss his forehead. I walked outside of the room, careful not to make too much noise. Sighing, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket. I looked at it for a moment, then nodded and dialed the number. I had to do this; had to say this. The other line picked up on the fourth ring.

"Chase Rickroff. What's up?"

"Hi, uh . . . it's Alex."

"Oh . . . hi. I didn't think I'd ever get to talk to you again. I figured you'd be trying to kill me by now."

"You can thank my dad that I'm not." I snapped, taking a deep breath.

"May I ask why you're calling?"

"There's something I need to tell you." I sighed, it was now or never.

"Aughhhhmmmm." Mason groaned, trying to shift his position. He shook his head, slowly returning to consciousness. I stood up, smiling.

"You're awake!"

"I guess." He said, turning to see who he was talking to. When he saw me, his face turned sour. "Oh. Hi, Alex."

I felt my chest tighten, "Mason, you have no idea how worried I've been."

"No, I don't. Were you worried at all? Where's Chase? I'm sure he's around here somewhere." Mason said bitterly, trying to sit up. I reached to help him, but he glared at me. I took another deep breath.

"Mason, I'm so sorry." I apologized, feeling those traitor tears pricking the back of my eyes. I just needed to stay strong a little bit longer. . .

"Look at me, Alex! An apology isn't going to fix this! What would fix this, is it never having happened!"

"Mason, let me explain . . ."

"Explain what? How you cheated on me, and then the jerk pushed me over the railing of your back porch? Because that, I already know."

"Mason . . ."

"What then, Alex, hmm?" The heart monitor slowly started beeping faster and faster. "Because I cannot think of anything else you could tell me. Unless it turns out there is _another_ guy. Let me guess-He's a vampire? Or no, wait- He's a merman. Yes, that's it. You're cheating on me with a _merman._"

"I'm not cheating!" I screamed, making him stop and stare at me. He raised his eyebrows. "Not . . . . anymore, anyways . . . I don't want Chase. I love _you_, and only you."

"I don't . . . I don't know." Mason looked stunned, but still angry and hesitant.

"Hear me out, please. I liked Chase, because he made me feel special, and he was . . . dangerous, I guess, because he's a beast tamer. And I couldn't stop thinking about how he saved my life- I thought I owed him. So I went to talk to him, to see what he wanted, and he wanted a date. Just one date! I agreed to it, and while we were on the date he kissed me. I kissed him back," Mason's jaw tightened and he looked like he wanted to punch someone. I held up my hands to silence him, "but when I realized it, I stopped. And I left. I went to visit you, because I wanted to tell you, but then . . . well I chickened out because I didn't want to hurt you any more than I already had. I told myself if you didn't know about it, things could go back to how they were. I wouldn't see Chase anymore, I wouldn't tell you, and we'd be happy again. But Chase visited again, and I didn't know what to do, or what to say to him and then you came by and you guys started fighting and then you . . . you fell. And I swear a part of me died inside because I thought . . . I thought you were going to die. And I wanted Chase dead, I wanted to hurt him. I did, actually . . . I called him a moment ago to tell him that . . . to say that . . . well . . .I I choose you. I love you, and I want to be with you forever, and I'm sorry. I made a big mistake, it spiraled out of control, and I didn't handle any of it well. And I'm the reason you're hurt so badly, I'm the reason you almost died, and-" I fell back into the chair, trying to hide my tears behind my hair and hands. "I'm so, so, _so _sorry. I didn't want _any _of this to happen. And I realized too late that I'd made the world's biggest mistake. You deserve so much better than me, you really do. And I- understand if you- don't want to be with me- any- more. I'm such a terrible-terrible person. I love you, so much. But what I did . . . it was terrible and- cruel. I deserve to be- alone for the rest of my life."

"I love you, too, you know." Mason whispered softly, "I never stopped. Even when I found out about Chase. It's why I got so mad."

I looked up at him, wiping away my tears with the back of my hand. "Really?" I squeaked. He smiled softly and nodded. I smiled and leaned in to kiss him.

"I love you." He whispered.

"I love you, too."

"But," he looked me in the eyes, completely serious, "you need to know that there might be times where I feel I can't trust you. It might be a little while before I can trust you completely again." I looked down at my feet, biting my lip, "But that doesn't mean I don't love you, and it doesn't mean I'm breaking up with you."

"I understand." I sniffled, then laughed.

"What?"

"We don't even know where we are going to be in a few years. As it is we might not be allowed to be together if I can't win the competition."

"And that's funny because . . .?"

"I'm not sure. I guess I'm just a bit emotional. And for whatever reason it makes me want to laugh at that."

"Well it doesn't matter. You're going to win. I just know it."

"It's not for another year or two, so I have time to start studying." I said, then froze.

"What?"

"I just used the words I and study in the same sentence, and they weren't separated by 'will not.'" I looked at him, and he looked at me, and for a moment, we were both silent. Then we both burst out laughing.

"Well good luck with that." He teased.

"What? Aren't you going to help me?"

"Um . . . I would, but . . . I don't think you'd actually do any studying."

"Oh really now?"

"Yes really."

"Bet you ten bucks I'll study for three hours _minimum_ this week."

"Oh you're on."

I had a feeling things would be back to normal faster than we expected.


	15. Epilogue

She looked at herself in the mirror, butterflies in her stomach. 'Today's the day.' She thought, combing a piece of hair behind her ear. There was a light knock on the door.

"Who is it?" she called, getting up to look through the peek hole.

"Your Maid of Honor." Came the reply, and the woman opened the door. Her long-time best friend stood in the entrance. The woman motioned for her to come in.

"I only have a little bit of time left."

"Are you nervous?"

"Of course." She answered, fidgeting. Her friend put her hand on the woman's shoulder.

"Well, don't be. You look beautiful." She smiled, "Come on, it's time."

* * *

><p>She heard the music through the doors, and her stomach flipped. 'It's happening. This is really happening!' she thought, turning to face her father.<p>

"Ready?" he asked, beaming at how beautiful his daughter looked. She smiled and nodded, taking his arm. "Here we go."

The big doors opened and all heads turned to look at her. Everyone stood up, watching her and her father as they walked down the aisle. Her fiancé looked at her, and he beamed. She reached the end of the aisle, and her father gave her away with tears in his eyes- happy tears.

* * *

><p>He slipped in unnoticed, and stood in the shadows. Even though it had been a long time ago, seeing her up there, with him, his heart sunk. She looked amazing, as always. She was practically glowing, and she radiated a happiness he hadn't seen since a long, long time ago. He considered leaving, so he wouldn't need to watch this, but then he remembered he hadn't even been invited in the first place. It had been his choice to sneak in. He hadn't planned on leaving, either. Far from it.<p>

* * *

><p>She saw a motion on the edge of her vision. Her eyes darted to it, curious. Her breath caught in her chest as she saw him, and remembered a dream she had had a long time ago. She gripped her fiancé's hands, and confusion flashed in his eyes briefly. Her eyes darted back to the figure. 'He can't ruin this, not after all these years.' she thought.<p>

"If any of you has reasons why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace." Said the priest, and she felt her heartbeat quicken.

The man in the back heard the priest, and studied the woman. He knew she'd seen him by the way she acted. She seemed slightly more tense, though most people wouldn't notice it. he pressed his back closer to the wall, trying to melt into the background even more. The pries waited another moment, then continued on with the ceremony. Quietly the man slipped out, placing a small box on the table holding the wedding gifts.

She felt relief flood through her when the priest continued, and she watched the man slip away through the corner of her eye. 'Thank you, for not ruining this for me.' She thought, then smiled even bigger. Nothing could ruin today.

* * *

><p>The ceremony flew by, and then the priest said the final sentences that would end the ceremony and join them forever. "I now pronounce you man and wife. You may-" the priest stopped, smiling and shaking his head, "kiss the bride." He laughed as the couple kissed before the sentence was finished. The room was filled with happy tears and applause, but the couple didn't notice. All they saw was each other, and the wonderful future ahead of them.<p>

_**7 years later**_

"Should we tell her?" he asked, holding his wife's hand. She cradled her belly, and nodded.

"I think she'll be excited, don't you?" she answered. He nodded and they knocked on their little girl's door. Their daughter had her long, dark hair up in a ponytail and was playing with her mother's old dollhouse.

"Juliet? Honey? Can we talk to you for a moment?" asked her mother, looking at her husband and smiling. Her daughter picked up the excited look in her mother's eyes and raised an eyebrow. She was almost the spitting image of her father, but had her mother's personality, despite the somewhat dog-like traits she picked up from her father.

"Sure, mom. What's up?" Juliet asked, setting down the doll her "Aunt" had made her.

"We have some big news." She paused, looking at her husband again, "How would you feel about a little brother or sister?"

Their daughter froze. Slowly a smile grew on her face until she was beaming.

"Really? Your pregnant? Is it a boy or a girl? Can I feel your tummy? Is he in there?" she asked, jumping up and looking at her parents with excitement. Her parents laughed.

"We don't know whether it's a boy or a girl yet." Her father chuckled, pushing a strand of loose hair behind his daughter's ear.

"I'm gonna have a little sister!" she smiled, then stopped, "or brother." She instantly went back to beaming and started running around her room. "What's it going to be named? Where will it sleep? Will it have magic powers, too? Do Uncle Max and Uncle Justin and Auntie Harper know? Does Uncle Zeke know? What about grammy and grampa?"

Her parents looked at each other knowingly, "You're the only one that knows, sweet pea. Can you keep it a secret until this weekend? We were going to invite everyone over for dinner to tell them." Her father informed her, giving her one of his We-trust-you-not-to-tell looks.

"Absolutely, you can count on me, pops!" she beamed.

The little family sat in Juliet's room all night talking about the baby until Juliet fell asleep. Her father picked her up carefully and laid her in her bed, wrapping the comforter around her shoulders. His wife came up behind him and kissed his cheek.

"I'm glad she's excited." She whispered, resting her head on her husband's shoulder. Her turned around and felt her belly.

"I cannot believe we have another child in there." He whispered back, beaming.

"I know." She whispered, "It really is amazing, isn't it?"

Her husband nodded, then leaned in and kissed her. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

"I love you more."

"Pfft. You wish." She smiled, yawning.

"Come on sleepyhead. Let's go to bed." He whispered, taking her hand. She nodded and followed him.

(**AN: I know this is cheesy, but I gotta do it!**)

And so, they lived happily ever after.

The end.

_Thank you to everyone who read this! I've really enjoyed writing this story and I hope to be starting a new one soon! Let me know what you think of how I ended it! Thanks again!_

_Little.D._

_I Fixed up the ending just the teensy-tiniest bit to make it easier to understand who she marries in the end. Hope it helps! _


	16. AN

_Hello, lovelies!_

_So, I just wanted to take the time to write this for you all because, here we are, over two years later, and I am STILL getting follows and favorites and reviews for this story. How awesome is that?! I'm not going to lie, looking back, there are a lot of things that could be edited with this story, and if you all would like me to, I would be willing to edit and repost this. All I would do is replace each individual chapter with an edited version so it sounds better. I would do this whenever I get my new laptop, which should be within the next month, so if you'd like me to edit this story (NOT change the plot or anything like that) let me know, because I would love to do that for you all. _

_I cannot begin to explain to you all how amazing it is that after all this time, this story is still doing so well. I am honestly flabbergasted. You guys are the greatest. _

_I love you all to pieces; keep being amazing and beautiful, and be sure to tell me if you'd like the edited version of this story!_

_Hugs and Butterfly Kisses, _

_Little.D._


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